The present invention relates to a flow control system for conveyors and more particularly to a flow diverting gate or shear in combination with an endless conveyor of the type suitable for carrying large numbers of objects such as fruit and the like.
Flow diverter gates are commonly employed in connection with endless conveyors. The conveyor may typically include an endless belt trained between sidewalls forming a trough along its length. Such conveyor is commonly employed in fruit handling operations or packing stations to provide a continuous supply of the fruit to processing machinery or personnel. In such applications, it may be desirable to provide excess flow of articles along the conveyor relative to requirements of a processing station. Thus, a portion of the flow may be diverted from the conveyor upstream from the processing station in order to closely adapt the amount or volume of flow on the conveyor to the requirements of the processing machine or personnel. Such diversion means may, of course, readily reduce flow upon the conveyor, but cannot increase flow upon the conveyor if the initial flow developed on the conveyor is not sufficient to meet the needs of the processing machine or personnel.
Accordingly, diverting means of the type contemplated by the present invention are employed to selectively decrease flow volume upon the conveyor. As noted above, flow volume on the conveyor may be regulated in order to adapt flow on the conveyor to requirements of the processing station. At the same time, it is also important to note that objects such as fruit and the like are subject to damage especially when an excess volume of the fruit is traveling along the conveyor. For example, if articles of fruit are stacked upon each other while traveling along the conveyor, they will tend to be pushed against the conveyor sidewalls which may cause bruising or abrasion of the fruit. Damage to the fruit may also occur, for example, when a diverter gate or shear is forced into the flow path of the fruit.
Numerous designs and types of flow diverter gates have been contemplated in the prior art for solving one or more of these problems. However, it has been found that a need remains for a flow control or variable flow diverting means of relatively simple and effective design capable of reliably regulating flow volume along a conveyor while eliminating or minimizing problems of the type referred to above.